What If the Best Part of Christmas Isn’t the Part We Think?

I find myself both grateful and uneasy during these weeks. Family gatherings, long-held traditions, cultural expectations, and religious observances all converge at once. It is a season filled with joy and meaning—but also with pressure that can quietly reshape what we value and how we experience one another.

Have you ever paused to think about what actually happens during the Christian season of Christmas? As I reflect on Christmas as it is practiced today, I see three distinct streams of celebration and activity. First, there is Christmas within the family: gifts, children, special meals, and traditions that bind generations together. Second, there is the broader cultural Christmas—commercialization, media emphasis, public displays, Christmas carols, Santa Claus in stores and advertising, neighborhood lights, reindeer, and, at times, even nativity scenes in the public square. Third, there is Christmas in the churches, where practices vary widely.

In the most conservative branch of the Restoration Movement, any observance of Christmas has traditionally been avoided. Many congregations have since moved beyond this aversion, now offering sermon series on the virgin birth and using the season as an invitation to celebrate Christ’s coming into the world. Elsewhere, churches mark the season with poinsettias, Christmas trees bearing “gift cards” for needy children, or special candlelight services. Catholic traditions continue with the liturgical observance of Advent, the Feast of the Nativity, and special masses, while Mainline churches increasingly draw on Advent resources, candlelight services, special readings, and musical or choral events offered to the wider community.

I am somewhat ambivalent about some of this.  I am very grateful that the secular culture takes the time to acknowledge the Birth of Christ.  Perhaps because this and family and friends reaching out during this season more people will come to know Christ as their savior.  However, as I observe the media and store hype to sell their merchandise  I think this commercialization has the effect of appealing to some negative aspects of humanity—greed, jealousy, and wrong expectations.    This wide-spread use of markets has also contributed to generating and cementing a common culture of Christmas giving and celebrations of joy.  Certainly, the needy benefit from this attitude of giving,

As far as other aspects of Christmas In the public  square is concerned, I don’t really have many problems with them.  Some in the neighborhoods do put out displays they can ill afford. Some do so to out-do others. Most, I think do so just wish to join in the festive joy of the season. Christians, Jews, and secular citizens have a long history of festive celebrations that promote positive results. Play a little word game with me. What are some positive things about Christmas? Promotes Joy, gratitude, family, giving, a common culture, and spiritual appreciation.  So, I believe this is good for our society.

You might be surprised but I don’t think the celebration of the birth of Christ in the churches is the most important result of Christmas. The celebration of the Incarnation is important for society at large in keeping God before all. However, congregations need the birth, death, burial and resurrection of Christ at the forefront all the time. The Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist in Latin, is the feast we should have at the forefront.  It is OK to emphasize the Birth of Christ and good, but for Christians and non-Christians alike there is a greater celebration.

Of the three aspects I have noted ( Family observance, cultural observance , and religious observance), it is the family aspect I suggest that is the most beneficial to all. It is bringing families together. It is teaching children about giving and appreciation. It is the binding that is done with singing Christmas carols together as a family. It is the uniting together with a shared meal. It is fostering family traditions that hold people together. It is fostering and demonstrating love for one another that is most important.  It is this I miss most of all when both children and grandchildren cannot be together at Christmas due to distance and obligations.

So, enjoy the Christmas season. Base you joy on the right things and ignore the hype.